Also, Freshworks starts operation in Singapore, and SolarHome welcomes retail veteran as new chiefs

e-Wallet OVO partners with Taralite, Bareksa, Do-It to further financial inclusion [Press Release]

OVO, Indonesia’s e-wallet app, has announced strategic partnerships with online mutual funds marketplace Bareksa, and lending platform Taralite and Do-It. The purpose of the collaboration is to expand the open ecosystem for financial services and to accelerate financial inclusion.

The partnership with Bareksa will allow OVO’s users to get investment access directly with 5 to 6 per cent interest.

Also Read: E-commerce marketplace rgo47 secures funding from Daiwa PI Partners

With Do-It as partner, OVO will improve its user experience for both platforms where users can access the financial products and get credit approvals under a minute.

Taralite, who has partnered for a while with OVO, will help improving the ecosystem with OVOPayLater in e-commerce platform Tokopedia.

OVO’s move is tied to its mission to expand its service outside online payment and to meet the country’s demand for faster and reliable funding, especially equity loan for SMEs. “As one of the pioneers in integrated fintech platform, OVO continues to focus on making financial inclusion a reality in Indonesia,” said Jason Thompson, CEO, OVO.

Customer engagement software Freshworks enters Southeast Asia through Singapore [Press Release]

Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) startup Freshworks has expanded to Southeast Asia with the recent setup of its regional hub in Singapore. The company said that it received support from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

Freshworks aims to expand adoption of its customer engagement suite and increase its network of partner resources as it has quite a demand with 45 per cent year-on-year growth in the region.

Headquartered in San Bruno, USA, Freshworks products are used by businesses in Consulting, Retail, and Shipping industries from the region. It includes cloud-based customer support, CRM, call centre software, internal collaboration tools, marketing automation solutions, Freshworks 360; a customer engagement suite that encompasses sales, support, and marketing needs, and Freddy, its AI engine that enables businesses to carry out smart interactions with their customers.

SolarHome welcomes new CEO and COO from retail finance sector [Press Release]

Burmese Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) solar energy provider for Southeast Asia’s off-grid households SolarHome has appointed Greg Krasnov, SolarHome’s chairman and founder, as chief executive officer (CEO) and Geert-Jan ten Hoonte as president and chief operating officer (COO).

Greg Krasnov is the founder and chairman of SolarHome, and also concurrently the CEO of FORUM, the venture-builder that supports SolarHome. Greg has in his pocket over 20 years of international experience in consumer finance and early-stage investing across over 50 countries, and successfully exiting a major retail bank in Eastern Europe.

Geert-Jan ten Hoonte, the new COO, will bring to the table over 30 years of senior experience in the retail and consumer finance sectors with the likes of Ahold retail group, Home Credit Vietnam and EasyCredit Vietnam.

Greg and Geert succeed Ted Martynov who will continue to support SolarHome as a senior adviser.

SolarHome was founded in 2017 and has since raised over US$5 million in equity from some of Southeast Asia’s leading impact VCs and angel investors that has gone into serving over 30,000 homes across 201 hubs in Myanmar.

Singapore’s VC sells its stake in India’s Qwikcilver to Pine Labs [Press Release]

Sistema Asia Fund by Sistema Asia Capital, Singapore-based fund managing firm has sold its stake in Qwikcilver, India-based technology company that offers end-to-end gift card solution. The stake is bought by Pine Labs, Indian point-of-sales solution company, as a part of the acquisition deal it has with Qwikcilver.

This deal would be Sistema Asia Fund’s first exit since investing in Qwikcilver in 2016. The company claimed it exited the company with multiple returns within three years of its investment.

Qwikcilver is an Indian company that develops the gift card business and has made itself available across 16 countries and 15,000 e-commerce portals and mobile application.

Sistema Asia Fund is a venture capital fund sponsored by Sistema PJSFC, a publicly-traded diversified Russian holding company and primarily focussed on investing in technology-enabled, consumer and business-oriented startups in India and Southeast Asia.

RedMart is officially available on Lazada app [Press Release]

In a bid to become a one-stop solution shopping app, Lazada has welcomed the completed move of RedMart into its platform. Any groceries purchase online via RedMart is now integrated to more than 400,000 retailers in Lazada’s ecosystem, all within the same app and at redmart.lazada.sg.

“Bringing Lazada and RedMart together is a project aimed at offering Singapore customers a platform where customers can compare similar products across all the retailers in our ecosystem, shop for complementary offerings and benefit from having more payment options, such as the Lazada Wallet,” said James Chang, CEO of Lazada Singapore.

Also Read: Meet the 11 female-founded startups of Simona Accelerator first batch

Lazada will be rolling out a series of app updates over the next few months to further enhance the shopping experience for customers with features as follow:

• Order Amend – allowing customers to add more items to an existing placed order;
• Delivery Slot Incentives – incentivising customers to consolidate deliveries within the same area and timeframe to reduce our carbon footprint;
• My List Features – including managing lists and stock up reminders.
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The post Today’s top tech news, March 20, 2019: OVO partners with Bareksa, Taralite, Do-It to further financial inclusion appeared first on e27.

Lens allows people to point-and-shoot at physical buildings and learn more about the listings inside the complex

One of my most enjoyable/depressing pastimes is to look around neighbourhoods I enjoy and imagine living in various apartments in the area.

Typically, I convince myself the apartments are unaffordable, sigh deeply, and go back to my avocado toast and kombucha.

Normal people search for apartments is by combing through the internet. They try and find a place that fits both budget and lifestyle. One reality of this search strategy is that it will inevitably require a tour of the flat with the property owner or agent.

This can be a burden for people in the early stages of finding a place to live. The process will involve a full-tour of the complex, even if the person knows almost immediately the place won’t work. Plus, if you get a bad agent…oofta…enjoy zoning-out during the 2-hour sales pitch.

For people still in this ‘hunting’ part of the process, PropertyGuru has introduced a new product that helps people mix the online and offline.

For Hari V. Krishnan, the CEO of PropertyGuru, it came down to a theory that most of our technology is filtered through our cameras. While smartphones are great, it is the cameras that transformed smartphones from a tech-upgrade to a fundamentally life-altering tool.

So, as the boss of PropertyGuru, it would make sense that his company also looked towards the camera.

“Why wouldn’t you use a camera as a discovery-maker as well? Wouldn’t it be great to take out our camera, point it at a building that you are interested in and discover the listings that are inside?” he asked during the demo.

Also Read: This Filipino startup turns your traffic stress into money

Called ‘Lens’, the product is an augmented reality feature that allows people to move their phone camera around a given area and see what apartments are available.

e27 took the tool for a spin (it is in beta mode) and the word that came to mind was “nifty”. I can’t call Lens an app (because it is a feature within the PropertyGuru app), but it is minimal and functional, unobtrusive and playful, specific in its use but weirdly addicting.

It is remarkably fun to stand on a street corner in Singapore and started moving the phone around, checking out the gossip of what properties are vacant and which require a waiting list.

As I hovered over buildings that looked particularly intriguing, a little home would appear that would show the number of units that were available (some buildings had a shockingly hight amount of vacancies). Then, if I clicked the home, I could get more details about the specific units, like the asking price.

Here is the PropertyGuru advertisement video to help visualise the product:

 

 

The hope of Lens is to minimise or eliminate a common process:

1. Person visits friend’s apartment.
2. Person asks about pricing, neighbourhood and amenities.
3. Person then goes online and types in various search terms to pinpoint the property.
4. Person then sees if they can afford a place.

With Lens, a person can just point their phone camera at a building they like and see if they want to pursue it further.

Going Beta

PropertyGuru Lens is currently in an invite-only beta launch phase. The plan is launching to the Singapore public in the near future.

While Lens showed a lot of potential, it was definitely a beta product. The tech was a bit clunky at times and the loading process was not instant. Occasionally it felt as if Lens was, “bumping into bugs” while I was using it.

During the demo, PropertyGuru was aware that Lens was not perfect, and released it to a bunch of journalists anyways.

Krishnan actually made the beta-phase a talking-point for a good chunk of the demo.

The logic was to encourage a culture whereby Southeast Asian tech companies start releasing beta products fairly often. By launching beta versions of features, it allows users to stress test the product, test load management and discover unforeseen bugs.

It also facilitates a corporate culture and customer expectation that experimentation is part of what happens in a given company. If nothing gets released before it is “perfect”, bugs will get hyper-criticised by the user-base. But, if a company consistently releases beta products, customers will understand it is a tool to play with and will be a lot better 6 months after the beta.

Plus, it is just fun to play around with a product that is not fully actualised. It is a nice change of pace.

According to a PropertyGuru spokesperson, PropertyGuru has received positive feedback from Lens and “is learning so much more”, which is point of the launch strategy.

The final imperfection that has to be mentioned is that the AR does not show the specific location of the flat (aka the floor). This won’t change in the future as privacy concerns outweigh convenience in this instance.

Overall, the bugs never overwhelmed what is a delightful product. Lens won’t alter the trajectory of PropertyGuru, but it will bring smiles to the faces of its customers.

Also Read: Bangkok TOP100 champion is bringing smiles across Thailand

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Are you aware that the technical skills gap is more acute than ever?

For many businesses, successful growth, remaining productive and staying ahead of the competition is the ultimate goal.

Having staff with the right skills and expertise is a vital requisite for a business maintaining a progressive attitude.

But with the IT sector facing a shortage of well-trained employees, it will require more planning and preparation to make sure your organisation succeeds.

Most businesses are aware that the technical skills gap is more acute than ever.

Already struggling to recruit the right calibre of professionals to fill the vacancies arising within their organisation, it’s becoming increasingly evident there won’t be a positive solution to the problem anytime soon.

The route to rectify this issue can be a costly one, especially if you’re starting from the ground up. But if the available resolutions aren’t doing the job, it could be time for businesses to take some responsibility bridging the digital skills gap.

How can business help reduce the technical skills gap?

The IT industry is continuously changing. New roles evolve from the introduction of cutting-edge technology that helps improve business performance, but for the uptake to be successful, it requires the employment of highly skilled professionals.

Singapore has been identified as one of the global leaders when deploying the latest tech within business scenarios. However, this rapid adoption has placed more emphasis on the growing skills gap, forcing organisations to bring in new staff.

Maintaining a steady influx of new recruits is vital to keeping productivity levels high. Trailblazers in their chosen fields, it’s up to these people who have all the latest know-how to help your performance improve.

But as businesses look to expand, these new high flyers can lack the relevant experience in the chosen target market, and without extra in-house training, they can struggle to have an instant positive impact.

For an organisation to remain productive, they also need to provide the right training and opportunities to current staff. This enables them to stay in the workforce for longer and can give every team a better overall balance.

Also Read: Doubling your e-commerce sales the non-generic way

Many CEOs value experience and market knowledge highly, especially in the IT sector, as these are things that can’t be taught. It’s this experience that makes long-term employees invaluable to your business.

When it comes to reducing the technical skills gap, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach for businesses to follow. What works for one may backfire for another, meaning you’ll need to come up with a plan that fits with your growth strategy.

Where can businesses find the right talent?

Finding an initiative to bridge the skills gap is a top priority for the Singaporean government. Along with introducing the Smart Nation programme, it has also provided a significant amount of investment in developing the digital capabilities of all businesses.

When looking to recruit, hiring from the local talent pool should always be a top priority for organisations. A company should have the ability to attract homegrown IT professionals if it offers the right perks.

But statistics show that Singapore faces the issue of an ageing population, which further implicates the problems of the growing technical skills gap, despite the Economic Development Board (EDB) highlighting 80 of world’s best tech firms have operations in the Lion City.

For some organisations, recruiting new tech professionals from closer to home is also not a viable option. Fast-growing tech firms in Singapore have failed to find skilled IT professionals to support their digital transformation effort, ultimately forcing them to import new talent.

Finding the right people to fill the skills gap shouldn’t prove a difficult task if a business knows where to look.

In a recent survey, 53 per cent of respondents said they would consider relocating to another city or country to have a more fulfilling work life, with a percentage of those citing a new challenge as a reason to change roles.

Businesses may have to restructure benefits and retention packages to secure the services of imported talent, with 66 per cent of respondents from the same report stating a laptop tops their list of priorities.

In the same survey, 24 per cent favoured certification vouchers, while 23 per cent listed training as a primary factor.

Partnering with recruitment companies is also a method that businesses can use to find IT professionals to fill the gaps appearing in their development and technology teams. Finding people with transferable skills can open a brand new search radius to find the perfect hire.

The ever-expanding skills shortage will continue to be a concern for many businesses operating within the technology sector and requires the effort of an entire organisation if they are to handle the introduction of future technology that can cause further disruption.

The future looks bright for those striving towards a better future of reducing the skills gap. By attracting and retaining the best talent available, it should help your business grow and choose its staffing priorities.

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Image Credits: sira jantararungsan

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The latest funding round for Mobilkamu was co-led by East Ventures and Genesia Ventures, with participation of Denali Venture Partners

Indonesian online automotive dealer platform Mobilkamu today announced an undisclosed Series A funding round co-led by East Ventures and Genesia Ventures.

The funding round also included the participation of Denali Venture Partners.

It followed an undisclosed seed funding round that the company has raised in November 2017.

The company plans to use the new funding to expand its reach in the local market as well as to develop its products and technologies.

This year, as part of its expansion plan, it also plans to open new branches in different cities in Indonesia.

Also Read: Used car marketplace BeliMobilGue.co.id raises US$10M Series A investment

“For the past year, we have greatly improved our customer service, increasing the range of products we can offer, including a new exciting initiative that aims to provide eligible customers with access to a care system that will support them for the lifetime of their car ownership,” said Mobilkamu Co-Founder and CCO Caue Motta in a press statement.

Mobilkamu aims to provide car buyers the experience of a simplified car search and purchase process, with the promise of offering “the fairest price in the market.”

Using their platform, car buyers would not need to research and compare multiple offers.

It also operates a motorbike selling platform named Motorkamu and has launched an agent affiliation programme named Mitra Mobilkamu, which promises “a fair source of income” for individuals who want to sell new cars themselves.

Run by a team of 70, the startup is headquartered in South Jakarta with branch offices in Bekasi and Ciputat.

Also Read: How Carro co-founder Aaron Tan raised US$78M by thinking beyond the classifieds model

By 2018, Mobilkamu said that it has delivered over 150 vehicles from various brands per month using its own custom towing fleet.

The startup has established partnerships with over 80 car dealers across Greater Jakarta Area as well as a
diverse range of financial partners, such as Bussan Auto Finance, BCA Finance, Mega Auto Finance, Mandiri Tunas Finance, and Bank Jasa Jakarta.

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Image Credit: Mobilkamu

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The Myanmar-based service plans to use the Unsecured SME financing to implement same-day payments to truck drivers

Burmese online truck shipment service Kargo has announced that it has inked an SME financing agreement with Yoma Bank, Myanmar’s commercial bank, since March 11, 2019.

Also Read: PropertyGuru goes beta with nifty augmented reality feature

The partnership will see Kargo receive an initial loan of approximately US$130,000. Through the bank’s Unsecured SME Financing, Kargo plans to facilitate same-day payments to its truck drivers, boost its ability to grow its customer base, and manage all invoices.

Kargo was founded in 2016 with focusses in the country’s logistics and supply chain industry. Bootstrapped at first, what it does is it connects independent truck drivers, fleet owners, third-party logistics (3PL) companies, and commercial logistics providers directly with businesses that can get access to trackable distribution and delivery of their goods across the country.

Kargo claims that to date, the company has connected almost 2,000 truck drivers in Myanmar.

“When we first envisioned Kargo, we were starting out in an extremely fragmented market that had a very opaque pricing system. Now, our virtual fleet has become the largest one in Myanmar and completing over 5,000 deliveries to date,” said Alex Wicks, the Founder and CEO of Kargo.

Prior to this agreement, Kargo has raised a seed round from Singapore-based SEED Myanmar in 2017 as well as a six-figure grant in February 2018.

Kargo was the ‘Best Logistics and Supply Chain Startup’ at the Echelon Top 100 Start-up Competition, Kargo received US$50,000 prize from the Singapore government.

Furthermore, in its Pre-Series A round, it managed to raise a seven-figure sum from Singapore’s ‘Cocoon Capital’ and another private venture capital firm.

Kargo is the first company that Yoma Bank has offered this loan to since the Central Bank of Myanmar approved the disbursement of unsecured lending.

Also Read: E-commerce marketplace rgo47 secures funding from Daiwa PI Partners

“Unsecured financing is solely based on the cash flow of the business and is a progressive way of supporting smaller enterprises. This financing is the first of many and we look forward to seeing innovative and tech-driven SMEs such as Kargo thrive in this market,” said the CEO of Yoma Bank, Hal Bosher.

Yoma Bank’s Unsecured SME Financing is a move by the bank to support the growth of Myanmar’s SMEs; which typically faces the problem of cash flow management.
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Photo by Rhys Moult on Unsplash

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In the Philippines, ride-hailing was added to the list of industries when foreign ownership is limited to 40 per cent

The Philippines’ Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) announced on Tuesday that it has rejected the appeal of Indonesian ride-hailing giant Go-Jek to launch a ride-hailing service in the country through its subsidiary Velox Technology.

Board chairman Martin Delara told Reuters that the accreditation committee has denied Velox Technology’s application as its failed to meet local ownership criteria.

The board has initially denied Go-Jek’s initial request earlier this year.

Also Read: Go-Jek facilitates drivers with medical teleconsultation via Doctor Anywhere

In the Philippines, ride-hailing was added to the list of industries when foreign ownership is limited to 40 per cent.

A Go-Jek spokesperson said that the company is “disappointed” at the decision and will “explore” its options.

Go-Jek has been speeding up its international expansion effort with launches in Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand.

The Philippines by far is the only market where their effort seemed to be met with regulatory hurdle.

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Cryptocurrency is just the tip of an iceberg called blockchain technology

The record highs of 2017 lead to a bearish 2018 in the world of cryptocurrency trading.

What’s perhaps mention-worthy is the fact that some of the major coins incurred huge losses in their value in the fag end of the last year.

While Bitcoin was 74 per cent down, Ethereum and Ripple saw a steep decline of 84 per cent — and the trend has continued into the start of 2019 for other coins as well.

However, the bigger picture is that the declining market may work as a stepping-stone for the creation of new value products and services using blockchain.

The pundits expect the market to be quiet for some time before investors and developers start creating future value products for the masses.

The expected developments through blockchain

Cryptocurrencies are the wonders of blockchain but the question remains — have we been able to explore it to its fullest potential?

The industry experts are of the view that more companies, charities, and financial organisations may start accepting cryptocurrencies in the near future.

Also Read: Batam’s TOP100 winner is on a mission to destigmatise disabilities

The blockchain market is expected to be worth US$20 billion by 2024. Billions of dollars are being spent on blockchain to utilise its effectiveness in financial services, cybersecurity, and other blockchain-based solutions.

Did you know 69 per cent of the banks are already experimenting with this technology to make their services more transparent, secure, and seamless?

Ventures like Resistance are the face of blockchain technology as they are based on the core values of privacy and decentralisation.

Its founder, Anthony Khamsei, believes in adopting an open-source policy that ensures the project remains transparent. “Transparency and privacy are critical for the success of a crypto project”, he quipped.

The company has come up with a platform that helps people to trade in cryptocurrency while maintaining their anonymity and privacy – the essence of promising blockchain technology.

Crypto still has a lot to offer

Cryptocurrencies have received a lot of flak from financial critics for volatility but the truth is, there are numerous other commodities in our day-to-day life, which can prove to be equally unpredictable.

These critics fail to realise that cryptocurrency is only the start of the journey for blockchain technology. This is just the tip of an iceberg!

There is still a lot of room for development because no matter what, Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrencies will never be a complex form of technology.

Also Read: The Philippines rejects Go-Jek’s appeal for ride-hailing licence

With the introduction of complex codes in blockchain, we can expect a lot more.

For instance, the principles behind blockchain can be taken up by large corporations to enhance the security and privacy of their data as well as smooth execution of the projects.

Cryptocurrency is still at infant stages in terms of credibility in the financial world, but the attention it has managed to garner from the masses indicate a positive step in discovering further underlying blockchain functionality.

Conclusion

In simple words, cryptocurrency is still an interesting case study for people that are still unsure about its future.

While some people think that it will meet the same fate as the dotcom bubble, others regard it to be the invention of the future.

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Image Credits: aurielaki

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A founder meeting is not just about choosing the right company, but also persuading the right founders to accept your cheque

For any angel investor, having access to quality-deal-flows will always be a key priority.

This is because, as compared to the stock market where all investment opportunities are readily available for you, it is not as easy to find the best startups to invest in.

Thus, most angels will need to be active in seeking out potential investments, such as meeting entrepreneurs through events and conferences, attending demo days, joining angel groups etc.

Over time, when an angel becomes more active and well known in the ecosystem, they are likely to receive direct investment opportunities from startups or their individual networks. This is a relatively easy process as compared to what comes next — meeting the founder one-on-one.

Through my experiences hearing both founders and investors, here are some useful things you should know when conducting a meeting with a founder.

1. The best startups will have investors competing

During fundraising, the key challenge for founders with high-quality startups will not be about convincing angels or VCs to invest. Instead, their challenge lies with knowing which investors they would want on board instead.

As an angel, it is important for you to understand the value you can bring to founders. Money aside, founders will look at what each potential investor can bring to them, be it your networks and contacts, industry experience, skillsets, etc.

For example, the value of two of AngelCentral’s Partners, Der Shing and Shao Ning, will be their past experience as founders themselves, having grown and ultimately exiting their startup.

Because of this, they are able to understand the challenges other founders are going through and be able to advise and help based on their own experience.

During your meetings with the founders, as much as it is important to use that opportunity to find out more about the company, you will need to know how to sell yourself and the value you can bring for the startup.

Thus, the objective of a founder meeting is not just about choosing the right company to invest in, but also persuading the right founders to accept your cheque in the first place.

2. Prepare even before the meeting begins

As Jason Calacanis stated in his book, “Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups”, it’s not just a simple Google Search.

In order to make the best of time during each founder meeting, it is key you conduct some preliminary research before it begins.

Also Read: Startup that helps hotels perfect their deals raises US$3.7M Series A

You should research on information such as reviewing the product itself, going deeper into their target market, info on their competitors, customers’ reviews and testimonials, etc. Most of the info should hopefully be in the pitch deck that you would have already received beforehand, but you should not be taking everything the founder claims at face value.

Juicero, a US-based startup that raised more than US$97.4 million in funding from prominent investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures and even the Campbell Soup Company.

However, it closed after four years when a video from Bloomberg showed that their produce packs were essentially giant ketchup sachets of fruit and vegetable pulp that you could scoop straight out of the bag and squeeze with your hands.

If investors were able to try out the products for themselves even before the meeting, they might not have made such a “foolish” mistake.

3. Get the crucial answers answered first

As angels, it is important for you to know the right questions to ask the founder. This is because while any (sensible) question you ask will be answered with much gusto and passion by the founder, you both have limited time.

Thus, according to Calacanis, the four most crucial questions you will want to have answered after the first meeting is:

– Why has this founder chosen the business?
– How committed is this founder?
– What are the founder’s chances of succeeding – and in life?
– What does winning look like in terms of revenue and my return?

If you do not like the answers to these four critical questions, you do not have to proceed with the more tactical or operational aspects of the business.

You also realise that three of the four questions are closely related to your assessment of the founding team, in line with what we have been sharing at AngelCentral: that the team is the most important factor when assessing a startup.

4. No need to say yes or no during the meeting

Some founders are excellent salesmen, and their charisma and persuasiveness will entice you to say yes to investing in them right away.

As it is a good practice for angels to say yes only when they are absolutely certain they will invest, it is important to remind yourself to inform the founder of your decision in a few days time via email, and not instantly.

I have heard of cases where investors have committed to investing in a startup, only pulling out at the last moment because they realised the amount of competition in the market was a lot higher than what they initially assumed.

This is also why the previous point of making preparations before the meeting begins is extremely useful.

Conclusion

It is hard to conduct a perfect meeting with a founder when doing it for the first couple of times.

However, you will be able to conduct such meetings a lot more effectively through enough experience over time.

Meanwhile, to start off, it will be useful to sit in meetings conducted by more experienced angels or attend pitch days that have a high level of interaction between the audience and founders.

Also Read: What’s in store for blockchain and cryptocurrency?

These would help you get a better sensing of how to go about asking questions and assess the team.

Lastly, many angels find this part of the journey the most exciting, as this is when they get to learn about new industries, be exposed to cutting edge technologies, and meeting exciting individuals.

So, do enjoy the process while you are at it!

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Image Credits: torky

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Anyone — from the regular joe to a huge MNC — can fall prey to cybercriminals

Today, with an increasing number of reports related to cybercrimes, it is no wonder that cybersecurity is a prime lookout for everyone.

Especially in the case of government websites or databases that contain highly classified and confidential information, cybersecurity becomes the top concern.

In order to fiercely protect this confidentiality, enterprises are now willing to go that extra mile, and take all possible measures to ensure top-notch cybersecurity. Consequently, the demand for cybersecurity experts is soaring today.

However, in spite of skyrocketing demands for experts skilled in cybersecurity, there is a lingering shortage in their supply.

This is something of interest and concern and is a hotly debated issue around the world.

Even though there are literally hundreds and thousands of vacancies across companies looking for cybersecurity experts, the problem with the skill gap is ever-widening.

In the World Economic Forum’s report published in January 2019, it has been expressed that there are more than 200,000 job posts that are yet to be fulfilled by qualified cybersecurity experts.

In other words, employers are constantly on the lookout for trained professionals in this field but are struggling to find suitable resources.

Such reports expose the deficit that enterprises are today experiencing, thereby giving an upper hand to the cyber miscreants who are leveraging this gap to their best advantage.

With every passing day, cybercriminals are coming up with newer and more complex ideas that can easily break through the most sophisticated of cyber security mechanisms.

As a result, companies all over the world are making a scramble to garner more information and fight against this security breach with whatever resources they have.

Earlier gaffes that have led to this gap in talent

As the world becomes ever more digitised and more people are shifting their focus to the internet, many unforeseen incidents and newer challenges are being created.

With easy access to the web and its myriad services and applications, no one can really predict beforehand what unscrupulous cyber activities could happen next.

Therefore, it is almost unsurprising that many industries are unprepared to face this issue that has now assumed alarming proportions.

Also Read: Batam’s TOP100 winner is on a mission to destigmatise disabilities

And, although top global firms and governmental agencies are now ready to invest huge chunks of money to equip their cybersecurity department with expert minds, there was a major issue of underinvestment.

This is somewhat related to the point that has already been mentioned above, that the rapid up-shooting of cybercrimes was not something that companies had predicted.

Therefore, investments to bring on board skilled cybersecurity experts was not considered a necessity back then.

Owing to the IT boom, there has been a mushrooming of hundreds of other technology companies. Now, even if the larger enterprises have sufficient budget to employ top cybersecurity experts, the newer and smaller companies often fall short of funds.

As a result, these hundreds of smaller IT companies all over the world suffer a lag in cybersecurity solutions. Not only are they left unguarded, but they also act as potential channels for cybercriminals to attack the larger organisations.

Apart from budget issues and failing to anticipate this danger, the dearth of necessary cyber security skills is also a major contributor to this skill gap.

It is important to understand that cybersecurity skills are no longer confined to mere degrees and certificates.

Reasons behind this increasing gap

Although much has changed from before, and companies have sprung to their feet to take necessary action, the lag in cyber security skills is still a reality.

There are several reasons why this gap is still growing today:

Ever-rising demand
With cybercrimes increasing at an appalling rate every year, it is truly hard to predict if the forces can overcome these and put an end to them for good.

It is possible to take time and address different technological issues, by researching and finding out appropriate technical solutions. But when it comes to addressing cybersecurity threats, the sheer speed of evolution leaves no time to come up with solutions.

With every passing day, the issues are becoming way more sophisticated and getting out of control.

Nowadays, companies are hiring engineering graduates for cybersecurity roles and enrolling them to in-house certificate programs to train them as cybersecurity experts. But even after this, studies have estimated that in the USA, there will be around 3.5 million vacancies for cybersecurity jobs by the year 2021.

Inadequate compensation and exposure
One of the most important determinants of any job is the compensation offered, not to mention the experience that one can gain.

In fact, these two are major factors that influence cybersecurity professionals when they join an organisation.

Today, all industries are equally vulnerable to cyber threats, owing to which there should ideally be unanimous demand for professionals across all verticals. However, it is observed that the IT giants are typically more upbeat in recruiting cybersecurity experts and offering them highly lucrative compensation packages as well.

This scenario leads to the distribution of necessary skills that are not uniformed.

If all industries can grow more upbeat about recruiting experts to tackle the technological crisis and are ready to compensate them proportionately, the gap can be bridged to some extent.

Poor communication skills
Simply going by degrees and experience is not enough in today’s world; professionals need to be thoroughly well versed in their communication as well.

This is not just limited to written communication. A cybersecurity professional must be capable of addressing the company management about cyber threats and possible solutions.

They must have the necessary soft skills to convince top managers about the investments that need to be made and steps that must be undertaken to protect the enterprise from cybersecurity threats.

Without effective communication skills, it is hard to survive any job today.

Recruitment prejudice
More often than not, it is found that companies tend to emphasize a lot more on the number of years of work experience while recruiting.

What most of the recruiters fail to realise is that the experience gathered on the job is of far greater significance than just the years of experience acquired.

When it comes to dealing with cybersecurity threats, exposure to various real life incidents plays a much more important role. It makes an employee truly seasoned to think out of the box and come up with effective solutions, rather than just having the theoretical knowledge about stuff.

Going beyond such prejudice can help companies get exactly what they need to keep themselves protected against cybersecurity threats.

How to bridge this talent gap

If you keep tabs on cybersecurity-related news, then you would already know that this shortage in supply of trained cybersecurity experts is not something new.

But, given that the gap in demand and supply of cybersecurity professionals is increasing rapidly, there still seems to be a few options we could use to turn the tables on the situation.

Public sector tie-up with private companies
One of the best ways to deal with the growing menace of cyber threats is to unite against the criminal forces.

When public or governmental agencies collaborate with top private technological companies, they are surely going to be a force to reckon with. With the aid of funds combined with the talent pool in private companies, there is bound to be better and more effective means of dealing with cybersecurity concerns.

Also Read: Startup that helps hotels perfect their deals raises US$3.7M Series A

With this intention, former US President Obama had already tied up with the US Government and Silicon Valley to bridge this talent gap in the cyber security industry.

Joint development of futuristic tools
If all the different industries decide to pool together their resources and cultivate the talents needed to fight against cybercrimes, then such cases can be curtailed to a great extent.

Instead of trying to go out all alone against cyber miscreants, gathering the top minds to create an industry-wide cybersecurity panel can devise cutting edge strategies to protect cyberspace.

However, such moves of collaboration depend on various factors, and of course time. But till then, the best move can be to begin right away by guarding your own cyberspace with the use of latest VPN technologies like ExpressVPN.

Although there is a long long way to traverse, in this endeavor to thwart the cyber-criminal activities all over the world, a VPN is an effective way to make the first move towards it.

Companies can gather more information on the best VPN applications that can be used for this purpose. Accordingly, they can recruit new talent and train them as per standards, to scale up to the requirements.

Cybersecurity threats are no less serious than the top worldwide concerns such as global warming. Therefore, it is extremely crucial to overcome this talent gap crisis and protect the cyberspace from persistent and targeted threats every time.

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Grab introduced lending services, payment channels, insurance updates and even instalment plans

Grab Financial Group, the fintech arm of Grab, announced today a host of new services that include SME lending, insurance updates, an online checkout system and the ability to pay bills via instalment plans.

The offerings are split into two core roadmaps, one is called ‘Grow with Grab’ and includes the lending/insurance services. The other is called ‘Pay with Grab’, which covers the payments services.

Grab’s long-term ambition is to become Southeast Asia’s largest merchant network, fintech lending platform and insurtech policy provider.

“We can leverage our scale and data insights to bring financial services products to market at a more competitive price point than anyone else,” said Reuben Lai the Senior Managing Director of Grab Financial Group in a statement.

The updates were announced at the Money 20/20 conference happening in Singapore this week.

Let’s get a bit more detailed into the updates.

Grow with Grab

In March, 2018, Grab announced a joint venture with the Japanese consumer finances company Credit Saison. The core focus of that partnership was to help people buy the products they would need to become Grab drivers. For example, loans to help buy the smartphones that are necessary to do the job.

The JV eventually started providing working capital loans for SMEs in Singapore. Today, the company announced it will pursue lending across Southeast Asia.

Last week, SGSME, a media company, reported that Grab will offer working capital loans of up to S$100,000 (US$74,000) to SMEs at an interest rate of 1 per cent per month.

Additionally, Grab announced ‘Pay Later’, a post-paid service that will launch in Singapore over the next few months. Pay Later is like a typical mobile phone subscription, allowing people to pay their Grab bill at the end of the month.

Grab will also facilitate an instalment plans that include a zero per cent interest rate over multiple months.

The goal is to provide people who may be under financial strain to have flexibility in their payment structure and avoid high interest rates or missed credit card payments.

Both the lending and payment-instalment services will only be offered to Grab’s most credit-worthy customers, which includes analysing spending patterns on the platform.

Pay with Grab

The two core products of the Pay with Grab roadmap is an online payments tool and a POS-integration service.

The online payment tool allows for e-commerce companies to facilitate transactions using GrabPay. It works just like any other online payment tool like Stripe or PayPal.

The selling point is that, for people who are deeply integrated into the Grab ecosystem, they can start to pay for a large variety of their daily life using Grab.

The e-commerce marketplaces Qoo10 and 11street are two big names that have come onboard and two movie theatres, Cathay Cinemas (Singapore) and SM Cinema (Philippines) will also host the payment tool.

For merchants, Grab has inked partnership agreements with Adyen, Boku, iPay88 and Dragonpay.

The other payment service is an integration service for point-of-sale (POS) devices. Merchants can now add GrabPay as a payment option for their POS system, which will help them streamline their accounting infrastructure.

To date, GrabPay for merchants has used a QR-code system. It is convenient for customers but separates the “Grab bills” from other forms of payment. Integrating into the POS system would shorten this gap.

The POS system will begin in Singapore before expanding regionally. Brands like Coffee Bean Tea & Leaf and Paris Baguette will be early adopters.

Insurance updates

For both Go-Jek and Grab, insurance has become an important avenue for attracting new drivers and riders. On this note, Grab partnered with China’s Zhong An Insurance back in January to expand its services.

Grab already offers medical leave insurance for drivers and personal accident insurance during all rides. It also has an Emerald Circle programme for drivers that covers lost earnings due to injury or illness.

The announcement today was that drivers can now use the app to tap into two different insurance products.

First, drivers will be able to top-up their long-term medical leave insurance within Grab. It would also allow drivers not using the Emerald Circle program to apply via the app.

The other update is Grab will let drivers top-up their personal-accident insurance using the app.

Over the rest of 2019, Grab will pursue policies of fractionalised premiums, micro-life insurance and critical illness policies.

Speaking on Grab’s overall financial services plan, Lai said,

“We are beating Southeast Asia’s fragmentation problem by bringing together the largest payments and financial services ecosystem. We have opened up our platform for more than 100 partners across a diverse set of industries ranging from malls to card networks and banks.”

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